HIST 700 The Study of History
Taught as schedule allows (consult the Course Directory)
This seminar is an introduction to historical thinking for entering graduate students. We begin with works that probe the boundaries of the discipline of history and consider its defining attributes. We then turn to a series of problems that all historians encounter in their work, as they define the scale of their projects, focus on change or continuity, come to terms with evidence, etc. We will consider several conceptual frameworks that have proven especially fruitful in recent historical work, including Marxist, poststructuralist, and postcolonialist theories. We end the semester discussing the politics of history and our own practices as teachers and scholars. This is not a seminar in historiography per se. Rather, my intention is to help you develop the critical tools, familiarity with broad historical and intellectual developments, self-awareness, and sensibility you will need as an historian. The fall semester is a readings course devoted to that purpose. In the second semester, you will be applying those skills to developing, researching, and writing a significant article on a subject of your choosing.
